[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text dp_text_size=”size-4″]LAHORE: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) has assured US administration officials that not only does it have a plan to get the country out of the current financial crisis, but it also intends to fulfil the state’s commitments made with global lenders and countries if it returns to power.
PTI officials met with US embassy officials two weeks ago to discuss the contours of its economic revival plan, as well as to ensure that PTI would continue working with multilaterals such as the World Bank, International Monetary Fund (IMF), Asian Development Bank (ADB), and others, and would uphold the State’s commitments to global lenders and states.
According to a senior PTI leader, “PTI is in touch with the US side,” and that its economic team, which included Asad Umar and Hammad Azhar, recently discussed PTI’s broader economic policies with the US side in Islamabad.
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The meeting followed a February meeting between a visiting US delegation led by US Department of State Counsellor Derek Chollet and PTI Senior Vice President Fawad Chaudhry.
According to sources, during the previous meeting, US officials asked PTI to share its economic recovery plan as well as PTI’s position on the government’s understanding with the IMF to restart its bailout programme.
The proposal was sought after PTI had started trying to restore relations by assuring that it would abandon the anti-US narrative in the future. By then, PTI chief Imran Khan had given a narrative makeover to the alleged regime-change conspiracy after months-long bashing of the US and its officials.
Sharing details of the meeting, the former federal minister revealed that PTI has shared its plan of decreasing the fiscal deficit and increasing remittances as well as fresh investment from overseas Pakistanis with the US officials.
He confirmed that PTI has assured the US side that it is willing to work with international organisations and friendly countries as they have given sureties to the IMF on behalf of Pakistan, saying, “PTI shared three-month, nine-month, two years and five years’ economic plan with US side.”
Another PTI leader, who also served as a federal minister, said that broad economic plans have been discussed with the US side, but no specifics have been shared with them, saying that sharing such details with different countries is a routine thing and PTI would not mind sharing it if any other country shows interest.
“We have never been anti-US; we have always been pro-Pakistan,” the former cabinet member said when asked about its public posturing against the US in the past. He said that protecting sovereignty is not equal to being anti-someone.
The PTI leader told the US officials that PTI feels that the economic policies need to rely on openness and trade, saying the party wants deep engagement with the multilaterals and friendly as well as other countries based on a balanced and open approach. “We want trade, not aid,” he added.
He said that the incumbent finance minister’s polices like a fixed exchange rate regime and imposing restrictions on imports were against the conventional economic wisdom and the “unprofessional dealing” was “causing damage to Pakistan”. He shunned the allegations that the IMF programme was derailed because of PTI.
According to the ex-minister, PTI officials told the US side that the party would pursue deep structural reforms and abandon the incumbent government’s “bizarre economic policies,” claiming that the eccentric policies were causing massive economic damage, destroying exports, and impeding foreign investment.
Referring to state-owned enterprises (SOEs), which cause billions of rupee losses each year, officials shared with US officials that the PTI would either privatise SOEs or use a public-private partnership model to make energy markets more open to investment. They claim that deregulation of SOEs will attract both domestic and foreign investment because the private sector is currently unable to invest in the energy markets’ generation, transmission, and distribution.
During the meeting, the PTI economic team apprised the US team that the former ruling party wants to bring changes in the taxation system and plans to bring the undocumented sectors into the tax net through technology. They maintained that PTI would end the disproportionate burden on the industrial sector.
To a question, both PTI leaders said that a meeting could also take place between the US officials and PTI chief Imran but it has not been scheduled so far. In the recent past, Imran and PTI not only showed a departure from the usual stance against the US but repeatedly conveyed the desire to restore relations with Washington.
After the US, Imran had accused former army chief Gen (retd) Qamar Javed Bajwa of regime-change conspiracy and exercising sweeping powers in most matters of governance, saying PTI was left to take all the blame.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]
